I’d give a good deal to know just how many people there are around that
boat!” Clay whispered.
“If you’ll just push this old scow up a little closer, I’ll sneak over
there and find out,” said Alex.
“If he tries to get away, tie him up with a rope!” whispered Jule.
“Every time that boy gets out of sight, he lands in trouble up to his
long ears!”
“There were only two when I left the _Rambler_,” Alex exclaimed, making
a sly face at Jule. “They shot a dozen bullets at me while I was getting
away, and never turned a hair!”
The boat was worked slowly through another hundred yards of the cut-off,
and then the boys could see the bulk of the _Rambler_ outlined against a
cloudy sky. There were no lights on board and no sounds were heard.
The boat lay in a sort of a bight carved out by the river as it bent
away to the north just before it made the western turn. Behind it was a
tangle of swamp.
In front swept the heavy current of the river. The rowboat halted within
perhaps a hundred yards of the place where the stolen _Rambler_ lay.
“If they had had the good sense to anchor on the other side of the
river,” Case whispered to Alex, “they might have made us a lot more
trouble. I’m glad they stopped where they did.”
“I’m afraid there are a whole lot of outlaws on board,” Clay whispered,
as the boys sat in the rowboat, watching the dim bulk of the _Rambler_.
“Then the two thieves who stole the boat have picked them up out of the
river,” Alex insisted. “There were only two when I left the deck, and
they came off from a coal tow which was going downstream.”
“If there were only two, we ought to go and blow the tops of their heads
off, and take the boat away from them, just to show that we can,” said
Jule. “We ought to do something to show them that they’re not the only
apples on the tree. Don’t you think so, boys?”
“You’re the bloodthirsty little pirate now!” laughed Clay. “I’ll be
satisfied if we can dump them in the river and get on board the good old
_Rambler_ again.”
The boys sat still in the boat for a long time, hardly knowing what
course to pursue. The sky was clearing of clouds, and the glow of the
stars shone dimly down on the _Rambler_. Although no lights showed on
board the motor boat, suspicious noises in the cabin and on the deck
informed the lads that people were moving about there.
“They’re awake and watching us, all right!” Alex whispered, after a
time. “We’ve got to do something to place them off their guard!”
While the boys were listening and waiting, Captain Joe sprang out of the
boat and waded and swam over to the hard ground on the south of the
cut-off. The boys saw only a white flash as the bulldog left the water
and disappeared in the darkness of the jungle. Teddy, the bear, seemed
inclined to follow him, but the boys held him back by main force.
“Now I wonder,” whispered Jule, “if the pirates are over there, too! If
they’ve got us surrounded, we’re likely to open a barrel of trouble in
about a minute.”
The noise made by Captain Joe and also by the struggle with the bear
apparently attracted the attention of those on board the _Rambler_, for
a faint light blazed up in the cabin of the motor boat for an instant
and was then extinguished.
“They’re getting their guns ready, I guess,” Clay whispered. “Suppose we
pull the boat under the shadow of the bank and take to the shore. We
might be safer there.”
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Case observed. “When those fellows turned
on the light they were getting ready to set the motors going. If we
don’t watch out, they’ll have the _Rambler_ whizzing downstream at the
rate of twenty miles an hour.”
“Well,” Jule declared, “if we go ashore we may get into trouble there,
so I propose that we land on the north side of the cut-off and try to
make a sneak on board.”
“Whatever we do,” Clay advised, “we ought to keep the boat within reach
so that, if they do go on downstream, we can follow them as fast as the
current will carry us.”
The boys argued in whispers for some time over Clay’s proposition and
then Alex broke out:
“If you fellows will push over to the south shore for a minute, I’ll get
out and see what is going on there. I don’t like the idea of having a
gang of pirates come up behind us after we land and advance to the
_Rambler_. That wouldn’t look well.”
“Don’t you never let him go!” Case advised. “If you do, he’ll get mired
in a swamp or bring a company of night-riders on top of us.”
Alex, however, did not wait for the boys to either pole the boat to the
south shore, or to decide as to whether he ought to land. Before any
further objections could be offered, he was up to his waist in water
moving toward the shadows on the south bank.
“The little monkey!” whispered Case. “I wish I had a rope around his
neck!”
“What shall we do now?” asked Jule. “We can’t go away and leave him in
that patch of woods.”
“I think we’d better go on over to the north shore and see if we can
retake the _Rambler_” Clay answered. “Alex, probably, has some notion in
his head which we don’t understand, and, anyway, he is capable of taking
care of himself.”
In accordance with this idea, the three boys landed and, leaving Uncle
Zeke in charge of the boat and the bear, with instructions to answer
Alex’s call from the south bank, they took their way to the bight in
which the _Rambler_ lay. They had only a shore distance to go, and were
soon within a few feet of the motor boat, which lay within a couple of
yards of the shore.
From the position they now occupied, they could see a dilapidated old
houseboat lying beyond the _Rambler_, her nose resting lightly on the
bank.
“That’s where the pirates have been living!” whispered Case. “If we
could only do something to drive them back to the old hulk, we might
possibly get the _Rambler_ away.”
All remained dark and silent on board the motor boat, still the boys
knew that the men on board were awake and alert. They had seen the prow
light turned on when farther up the cut-off, and only a few moments
before a light had shone in the cabin.
The boys waited for what seemed to them an hour or more, watching and
listening, hoping for Alex’s return, and hoping, too, for some
indication of the intentions of the pirates.
“We’ve just got to make a break pretty soon,” Jule said. “I believe
those fellows on board the boat know that we’re in the vicinity. They’re
not asleep, and they wouldn’t be sitting there in the dark unless they
were suspicious.”
“If you boys will stay here,” Clay suggested, “I’ll attempt to gain the
after deck of the _Rambler_. If I succeed, I may be able to drive the
pirates out of the boat.”
“I was just thinking of that myself!” whispered Case.
“You remain here,” Clay went on, “and I’ll see what can be done.”
The words were hardly out of his mouth before the “chug, chug, chug,” of
motors was heard, and the _Rambler_, still showing no lights, glided
softly upstream!
After proceeding a few paces, however, the power was shut off, and she
remained swinging in the almost stagnant waters of the bight. Her
position was, perhaps, a hundred paces to the north of the cut-off, and
perhaps ten paces from the shore where the boys were.
“I guess they’ve got us going now!” Case exclaimed regretfully. “They’ll
shoot upstream in a minute, and that’ll be the last of the merry old
_Rambler_! We’ll have to build another boat, boys!”
No one replied, for just at that moment the splash of oars and poles was
heard, coming swiftly down the cut-off. The boys turned their eyes in
that direction and almost shouted in their amazement as three blue
lights, following the channel of the cut-off, proceeded to the west, to
all appearances floating six or eight feet above the surface of the
water! The boys stood silent for a moment.
“Now, what do you think of that?” whispered Clay. “Three times and out!”
“I know now what the three blue lights mean!” gasped Case. “They
constitute a signal used by the night-riders!”
“There ain’t any tobacco warehouses to burn here!” Jule scoffed.
The three blue lights came on steadily, stopping after a time at the
very mouth of the cut-off, two or three hundred feet from where the
_Rambler_ lay.
Heretofore the lights had seemed to be floating in the air. Now the boys
could faintly distinguish the bulk of a boat looking weird and ghostly
under the mysterious illumination.
“I wonder if that won’t scare the pirates?” asked Jule.
The answer came from the _Rambler_ itself, for the motors were turned on
and the boat whirled swiftly away toward the opposite bank of the river.
Then a volley of shots rang out from the mysterious boat, and a voice
called over the water:
“Obey the signal, boys! If you don’t, we’ll fill you full of lead! You
know what three blue lights mean!”
Much to the amazement of the boys, the motors ceased their clatter and
the _Rambler_ lay swaying just at the edge of the current.
“Do you mind that now?” whispered Case. “The pirates on board the
_Rambler_ don’t know that the outer walls are all bullet-proof!”